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• Voice-Powered Assembly: Boosting Self-Efficacy in Older Adults with "Build2Race"

  Noah Zijie Qu, Mark Chignell, Jamy Li · 2026 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This study investigates whether voice assistants (VAs) can support older adults in physical product assembly—a largely unexplored use case despite the proliferation of self-assembly products and the importance of such tasks for independent living. The research compares a custom…

  older adults · voice assistants · self-efficacy · aging in place · assembly tasks

• The Intersecting Liminality of Technology Adoption and Disability during Life Transitions

  Eliane Figueira, Chaima Jemmali, Kristen Shinohara · 2026 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper introduces the concept of "intersecting liminality" to explain how people with disabilities navigate technology adoption during major life transitions. The research combines two complementary studies: semi-structured interviews with 22 blind and low vision (BLV) older…

  life transitions · liminality · technology adoption · blind and low vision · older adults

• Situated Understanding of Errors in Older Adults' Interactions with Voice Assistants: A Month-Long, In-Home Study

  Amama Mahmood, Junxiang Wang, Chien-Ming Huang · 2026 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This month-long field study examined how 15 older adults (ages 66-94) interact with voice assistants in their homes, with a particular focus on errors and conversational breakdowns. The researchers deployed Amazon Echo Dot smart speakers augmented with custom audio recording…

  voice assistants · older adults · conversational AI · errors · smart speakers

• Robots for Older Adults: A Scoping Review

  Samuel A. Olatunji, Yao-Lin Tsai, Saathveek A. Gowrishankar, Megan A. Bayles, Wendy A. Rogers · 2026 · ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction

  This mixed-method scoping review in the ACM Journal of Human-Robot Interaction establishes the state of the science for robots supporting older adults, covering 205 empirical studies published from 2010 through 2022. The review follows PRISMA reporting guidelines and the Budgen…

  human-robot interaction · robots · older adults · aging · assistive technology

• Toward Integrating AI Chat and Search: A User-Centered Perspective across Age Groups

  Chen He, Michiel Spape, Khadijatul Kobra, Robin Welsch, Giulio Jacucci · 2026 · ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems

  This paper investigates how younger adults (25 participants, mean age 27) and older adults (22 participants, mean age 56) use AI chat (ChatGPT) and traditional search (Google Search) together to retrieve information. The research is framed around Visual Data Exploration,…

  information retrieval · aging · older adults · AI chat · large language models

• Co-designing MESA-Bot: Enhancing Accessibility, Privacy, Security, and Trust in a Mental Health Chatbot for Older Adults

  Aishwarya Umeshkumar Surani, Sanchari Das · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Surani and Das address the gap between accessibility design and privacy-and-security engineering in mental health chatbots for older adults, a population nearly a billion strong worldwide for whom cost, stigma, wait times, and digital-literacy barriers limit access to…

  older adults · mental health · chatbot · co-design · privacy

• Looking Beyond the Screen to Study the Technology Use of Older People Experiencing Cognitive Concerns

  Ruipu Hu, Eun Kyoung Choe, Amanda Lazar · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper is a week-long qualitative study of how ten older adults with cognitive concerns — nine with Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) and one with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), ages 50s–80s, six Mandarin-speaking — use videoconferencing in their everyday lives.…

  older adults · aging · cognitive accessibility · cognitive concerns · subjective cognitive decline

• Remembering with Reminiscope: Codesigning with Generative AI for Reminiscence Among Older Adults

  Lisha Zhu, Rui Qi, Siyuan Huang, Xueliang Li · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper presents two linked studies investigating how generative AI can support reminiscence among older adults, both individually and in group settings. In Study 1, the authors conducted individual co-design sessions with 16 residents of a care home in Shenzhen,…

  Generative AI · older adults · reminiscence · human-AI co-design · reminiscence technology

• Harmonizing the Senses: Designing a Cross-Modal Interactive Art System to Enhance Older Adults' Affective Experiences

  SiHan An, Yifan Wu, Zihan Zhang, Yuanlinxi Li, Mengqi Jiang, Jiaxin Zhang, Qingchuan Li · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper investigates how cross-modal correspondence and congruency across visual, auditory, and kinetic modalities shape older adults' affective experiences in digital art systems, and how an AI-infused drawing mode can scaffold those experiences. The authors frame…

  older adults · multisensory stimulation · affective computing · cross-modal correspondence · generative AI

• From Performers to Creators: Understanding Retired Women's Perceptions of Technology-Enhanced Dance Performance

  Danlin Zheng, Xiaoying Wei, Chao Liu, Quanyu Zhang, Jingling Zhang, Shihui Guo, Mingming Fan · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Zheng and colleagues study how interactive-dance and generative-AI technologies can be designed around the needs of retired women dancers in China — a population estimated at over 100 million, for whom community dance is a major post-retirement practice but where stage…

  aging · older adults · interactive dance · AIGC · large language models

• GuideMe: A VLM-Based System Assisting Independent Smartphone Learning for Older Adults

  Kairong Fang, Jiesi Zhang, Shi-Ting Ni, Pan Hui, Yuyang Wang · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  GuideMe tackles a problem familiar to anyone who has watched an older relative struggle to learn a new smartphone app: the combined weight of declining vision, memory, and motor function plus unfamiliar terminology makes independent learning extremely difficult, while in-person…

  older adults · aging · cognitive accessibility · vision-language model · conversational agent

• From Barriers to Blueprints: A Critical Systematic Review of Older Adults and Social VR

  Sho Conte, Cosmin Munteanu, Aava Sapkota · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Conte, Munteanu, and Sapkota conduct a critical systematic review of 85 HCI papers (2017-2024) on older adults and social VR, arguing that the dominant narrative — which frames older adults as deficient users who struggle to adopt VR — is itself a product of flawed research…

  social VR · older adults · ageism · epistemic injustice · resistant reading

• Look Here, Click Me: Improving Older Adults’ Perception of Manipulable User Interface Components through AI-Based Perceptual Guidance

  Sera Park, Seoyeon Kim, Sangyeon Kim · 2026 · Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’26)

  This CHI 2026 Extended Abstracts paper from Sookmyung Women’s University (Seoul) tackles a concrete gap in older-adult digital literacy: existing programs teach step-by-step procedures ("tap here, then here, then here") that collapse the moment an app updates its layout. The…

  older adults · digital literacy · perceptual learning · accessibility · UI components

• Collaborative AI Scaffolding for Structured Drawing in Dementia Care: A Feasibility Study

  Hui-Lien Huang, I-Ping Chen · 2026 · Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’26)

  This CHI 2026 Extended Abstract reports a one-on-one feasibility study of a tablet-based AI drawing tool for older adults with dementia, conducted at a day-care centre in Taiwan. The system pairs a Google Gemini vision-language model (VLM) with Azure text-to-speech to deliver…

  dementia · older adults · human-AI collaboration · human-in-the-loop · vision-language model

• "I Want to Connect, But...": Exploring Socially Isolated Older Adults' Views on Social Engagement and Technology for Connecting

  Chia Hsin (Josette) Lee, Rachana Nataraj, Aqueasha Martin-Hammond · 2025 · ASSETS 2025: 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper presents a qualitative study examining how socially isolated older adults perceive social engagement and the role technology might play in supporting their connections. The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 adults aged 60 to 84 recruited from…

  social isolation · older adults · aging · qualitative research · social technology

• Examining Age-Bias and Stereotypes of Aging in LLMs

  Sherwin Dewan, Ismail Shaikh, Connie Shaw, Abhilash Sahoo, Akshita Jha, Alisha Pradhan · 2025 · ASSETS 2025: 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper investigates how large language models encode and reproduce age-related stereotypes about older adults. Using prompts from the Bias Benchmarking Questionnaire (BBQ), a well-established fairness dataset, the researchers administered 1,648 age-bias prompts to ChatGPT…

  ageism · AI bias · large language models · older adults · stereotypes

• Breaking Barriers: Co-Designing Physical Activity Promoting Technologies with Older Adults Living Alone

  Muhe Yang, Karyn Moffatt · 2025 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This study investigates why physical activity (PA) promoting technologies fail to meet the needs of older adults living alone, and how technology might better support their exercise engagement. The researchers conducted a multi-stage design process with 17 inactive older adults…

  aging · co-design · physical activity · social support · older adults

• Accessible Web Design for Older Adults: Challenges and Solutions

  Washington Chiriboga-Casanova, Nuria Medina-Medina, Patricia Paderewski-Rodríguez · 2025 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This systematic literature review analyzes 4,052 articles published between 2014 and 2023 to comprehensively map the challenges older adults face online and the solutions proposed to address them. Using the PRISMA methodology and PICO framework, the authors selected 35 studies…

  systematic review · older adults · web accessibility · aging · design guidelines

• "I Felt Listened to": Evaluating an AI-Powered Reflection Tool for Care Partners

  Jazette Johnson, Hira Jamshed, Rachael Zuppke, Amanda Leggett, Emily Mower Provost, Robin N. Brewer · 2025 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This study evaluates CareJournal, an Amazon Alexa skill designed to support communication between older adult care receivers and their family caregivers through AI-assisted daily reflection. The research addresses the challenge of "articulation work"—the often invisible effort…

  voice assistants · generative AI · caregiving · older adults · reflection

• Exploring Videoconferencing for Older Adults with Cognitive Concerns Using a Dramaturgical Lens

  Ruipu Hu, Ge Gao, Amanda Lazar · 2024 · Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '24)

  This paper examines how older adults with cognitive concerns — ranging from subjective cognitive complaints to diagnosed mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early-stage dementia — experience videoconferencing platforms like Zoom. Using Erving Goffman's dramaturgical framework…

  cognitive accessibility · older adults · videoconferencing · mild cognitive impairment · dementia

• Exploring Older Adults' Reminiscing with ChatGPT and Text-to-Image Technology

  Yuxiang Zhai, Jiawen Zhang, Jihong Jeung · 2024 · Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '24)

  This short paper explores the potential of generative AI technologies — specifically ChatGPT for conversational elicitation and text-to-image generation (DALL-E) — as tools to support reminiscence storytelling by older adults. Reminiscence, the act of recalling and sharing…

  older adults · generative AI · reminiscence therapy · well-being · storytelling

• Development and Evaluation of the Mobile Tech Support Questionnaire for Older Adults

  Hasti Sharifi, Joseph E Michaelis, Debaleena Chattopadhyay · 2024 · ASSETS '24: Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper develops and validates the Mobile Tech Support Questionnaire (MTSQ), a standardised instrument for measuring older adults' preferences for and perceived quality of technology support during ongoing mobile device use. While mobile device ownership among older adults…

  older adults · mobile technology · tech support · questionnaire development · digital literacy

• accessFinTech: Designing Accessible Financial Technology

  Jiamin Dai, Benjamin M. Gorman, Garreth W. Tigwell, Helena Marie Lyhme, Belén Barros Pena, Karyn Moffatt, Celine Latulipe · 2024 · Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2024)

  This workshop proposal addresses the growing need for accessible financial technology (fintech) as digital banking, mobile payments, and cryptocurrencies become increasingly central to economic and social participation. The authors define fintech as digital technologies that…

  financial technology · fintech · digital payments · banking accessibility · cognitive accessibility

• Co-design of Robotic Technology with Care Home Residents and Care Workers

  Helena Anna Frijns, Ralf Vetter, Matthias Hirschmanner, Reinhard Grabler, Laura Vogel, Sabine Theresia Koeszegi · 2024 · Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments (PETRA)

  This paper documents a co-design workshop series conducted at two care homes in Austria, involving 25 participants: 13 care workers (mean age 43.5) and 12 care home residents (mean age 80.6). The research question was whether introducing technology components — rather than…

  co-design · participatory design · older adults · care homes · robotics

• "This really lets us see the entire world:" Designing a conversational telepresence robot for homebound older adults

  Yaxin Hu, Laura Stegner, Yasmine Kotturi, Caroline Zhang, Yi-Hao Peng, Faria Huq, Yuhang Zhao, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Bilge Mutlu · 2024 · Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '24)

  This paper investigates how conversational telepresence robots can help homebound older adults interact with the external world. Homebound status — defined as rarely or never leaving home due to illness, injury, or environmental constraints — affects a growing proportion of…

  telepresence robots · older adults · homebound · social isolation · participatory design